From the Director: A New Experience of Resiliency
Nancy Hafer, M.S., Director, Resource Center for Family-Focused Practice
It will not surprise anyone given the last 18 months, that we landed on the theme of Resilience for this issue of our newsletter. Over the years, the Wraparound field has, of course, long tapped into resiliency and the building of resilience within our families and our workforce. And, over this pandemic year, I believe we all had “a new experience of resiliency,” digging deep to persevere… and just get through it. In This eNewsleeter issue highlights some key research and thinking around this topic. And as we come out of the pandemic, we have the opportunity to reflect on what got us through.
“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
Oprah Winfrey
Pandemic Resiliency—Different?
Wow, does life look differently than it did pre-pandemic. We have faced uncertainty, changes, fear, sadness, grief—and so many new routines. Naturally, some of those new routines were unexpected changes, and many caught us off guard. The changes also challenged our coping skills, our goals and our perspectives. All of this along with overall daily lifestyle change occurred and kept on for over a year, creating an ongoing chronic condition. Did you find yourself tapping into a different resiliency? Did you look into a different set of resources for your families or for yourself? Did you get new questions from your team that you hadn’t experienced before? This is the data that is important to understand and to capture so that we can continue to tune up some resources, strategies, instructions and routines that are useful to build resilience and resiliency.
This year has also called out the many ways in which systemic and institutionalized racism has created inequities and hardships for people of color. It is imperative that we examine ourselves and our institutions (agencies we work with) closely to see where we may have partiality, bias preconceptions and unawareness. We need you to be an anti-racist role model for our Wraparound teams, our families and our communities. I am dedicated to directing resources and finding opportunities to work on anti-racism in 2021 with all of you. If you have ideas on what we can do, I would like to hear from you.
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
~Nelson Mandela
Good Resources in the Newsletter
I chose to highlight resilience given the precarious nature that the pandemic has created for families, challenging their ongoing ability to survive with resiliency. There is a good foundation with the history of Resilience Studies, Resilience Theory, Models of Resilience and the Field of Resilience Research. Over the years, we have featured trainings and keynote/breakout conference speakers who have highlighted how to build and maintain our resilience as it is critical to our well-being. In terms of new research, UC Davis, in collaboration with Tulane University, is looking at predictors of resilience to better understand how to guide government policy and public health.
As always, I appreciate you and all the work you do to help families every day. We hope you enjoy the newsletter!